An assortment of all things interesting (and possibly useless) in the legal profession

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Update: Death Penalty Standards Are Not "Evolving"

On March 19, Nima discussed New Mexico's repeal of the death penalty. The repeal, as he intimated, could "open up new avenues to the Supreme Court for death row inmates to argue against the constitutionality of the death penalty. . . .[because] other states follow New Mexico's lead in banning capital punishment altogether[.]" Given the majoritarian "evolving standards" jurisprudence, seeTrop v. Dulles, 356 U.S. 86, 101 (1958), I thought Nima's suggestion was well-taken.

That's pretty powerful language. Granted, as LawDork notes, the Attorney General's role is to defend the law of the state--regardless of what his or her views are. But I nevertheless think this reaction is interesting in light of the previous discussion, as it highlights the fact that our country may not be ready to reverse it's death penalty course . . . yet.